The cooking of food is as important as its selection, because the manner of cooking makes it easier or more difficult of digestion. The question of the proper selection and cooking of food is so vital to the health and resultant happiness of every family, and to the strength and well being of a nation, that every woman, to whom the cooking for a family is entrusted, should have special preparation for her work, and every girl should be given practical and theoretical training in Dietetics in our public schools. The study is as dignified as the study of music and art. Indeed it can be made an art in the highest conception of the term. Surely the education of every girl in the vocation, in which she sooner or later must engage, either actively or by directing others, means more than education in music and drawing. We must all eat two and three times every day; there are few things which we do so regularly and which are so vital; yet in the past we have given this subject less study than any common branch in our schools. When the dignity of the profession of dietetics is realized, the servant problem will be largely solved. In cooking any food, heat and moisture are necessary, the time varying from thirty minutes to several hours, according to different foods. Baked beans and meats containing much connective tissue, as boiling and roasting cuts, require the longest time. The purposes in the cooking of foods are: the development of the flavor, which makes the food appetizing, thus encouraging the flow of gastric juice; the sterilization, thereby killing all parasites and micro-organisms, such as the tape worm in beef, pork, and mutton, and the trichinae in pork; the conversion of the nutrients into a more digestible form, by partially or wholly converting the connective tissue into gelatin. * * * * * [Sidenote: Cooking of Meats] The fundamental principle to be observed in the cooking of meat concerns the retention of the juices, since these contain a large part of the nutrition. The heat develops the flavor, and the moisture, together with the heat, dissolves the connective tissue and makes it tender. A choice piece of meat may be toughened and made difficult of digestion, or a tough piece may be made tender and easy to digest, by the manner of cooking. * * * * * =Soups.= To make meat soups, the connective tissue, bone and muscle should be put into cold water, brought _slowly_ to the boiling point and allowed to simmer for hours. It must be remembered that the gelatin from this connective tissue does not contain the tissue building elements of the albuminoids. These are retained in what meat may be about the bones of the boiling piece and in the blood.